Doggone Express is a nonprofit organization in Belle Chasse that helps Louisiana jails and prisons establish training programs. Dogs that may have been killed at the parish animal shelter were brought to the jail so inmates could train them with basic skills.

“Knowing how to sit, stay, basic commands and save them from being, like you said, killed,” said inmate Jason Beter, who was selected as one of the inmates to be trained to train dogs.

George Bonnett of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, said inmates receive a tangible social skill benefit through the program.

“There’s an emotional benefit to it that they will see manifest outside of our facility when they go back home,” Bonnett said.

Bill Barse, who was training the inmates, said the inmates were learning conflict resolution.

”They are learning how to deal with aggression and frustration,” he said.

Barse said the program also works with veterans.

Retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. Steve Longwill, who was injured in Iraq twice, said he had his eye on a dog named Rasha.

“We’re losing Iraqi veterans at the rate of more than one a day due to suicide, so we’ve got to do something,” Longwill said.

The program is already underway at the Rayburn Correctional Center and the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women.